I never planned on being a coach. Two season-ending ankle injuries in two years will sort that out for you. With playing off the table, I put my hand up to help out at my local country footy club instead. Dad had been club president for years, so the place was basically my second home growing up anyway. Giving back wasn't really a decision. It was just what you did.

Turns out coaching a bunch of 10 to 13 year olds teaches you a lot more about people than it does about football. The coaches who actually stick in a kid's memory aren't the ones with the best set play. They're the ones who left them more confident than they found them.

In 2022 I packed up and moved from WA to Victoria for a dream job, helping build Hawthorn's first AFLW program. Incredible opportunity. Also a lonely one on the coaching front. I had zero local network, so finding a team of my own to coach meant hours scrolling Facebook groups and club websites with no real idea what was out there, or who to even ask.

Eventually I landed at a club ten minutes from my front door, and two seasons in I properly understood what it means to be connected to the right one. These days I coach an Under 19 Premier side. I got that job the old fashioned way: cold emailing my CV and talking myself up, because nothing better existed.

So I built something better. Every club I've ever been part of has the same problem on loop. Good clubs can't find good people, and good people have no idea the club that needs them even exists. ClubSport Connect is the fix.